visual time tables, vertical or horizontal?

[signandsmile]

ds's soon to be reception teacher has gone on 'an autism course' came back worried that the visual prompts we had discussed ran left to right and she had been told on the course they should be vertical....

Bless her she came back to us to ask what we wanted and DS is very used to left to right, (also helpful for reading and maths to run that way).

Does anyone have an knowledge / evidence about why she was told they should be vertical?

thanks

[Ineedalife]

I don't know why but Dd3 chose to have hers top to bottom and I must admit for her morning routine it does work really well.

The one I have done at work though for preschoolers runs left to right as with reading. I do find it slightly confusing when working through it with the children.

I will watch with interest as it wouldn't take much to tempt me to use vertical at work.

Sorry no help at all am I.

[EllenJaneisnotmyname]

Don't think it matters. Younger, more severe children tend to get on better with vertical, but if he's happy and used to left to right, fine! I think it's because left to right is very easy to accidentally transpose and DC might work right to left but top to bottom is a lot easier, once taught, to remember, harder to confuse, less likely to try bottom to top by mistake.

[signandsmile]

that's interesting, thanks ellenjane,

ds has a First | next board with a 'finished' section at the bottom, for choosing activities,

and the week timetable we have the wall is horizontal, also his communication book has always been left right, (altho now he is speaking () he is now only using it for timetable rather than communication).

[Starchart]

Vertical is easier and how you might start, but if you have already mastered left to right, going vertical is a backwards step.

This is because you use left to right to read, for calendars, for storyboards, for maths etc. It is better to aim for left-right so it comes naturally when seeking out information.

[tabulahrasa]

I know that during various assessments I was told that DS naturally tries to track down the way...but yeah if he's using it fine, why change it?

[signandsmile]

thanks guys, (yeah I thought L to R would be useful for reading etc.) Great, can tell teacher DS already past the vertical stage